Fort Worth daily gazette. (Fort Worth, Tex.) 1882-1891, 1887-09-06
TESTING THEIR EYES.

cumstances.
TESTING THEIR EYES.
METHODS EMPLOYED TO SEE WHETHER
READING RAILROAD MEN ARE COLOR
BLIND.
In one Of the upper rooms of the Read
ing Railroad station at Ninth and Column
bia avenue. crowd Of men were gath
cred, and Examiner W. ". Salmon called
them one by one and put them through
the very simple, though thorough test. 1t
was an Interesting study TO sec these
sturdy, begrimed fellows walk into 8
room, stand twenty feet away from csrd
on which were lines of various sized let
ters, and name them st the request CT MIR.
Salmon. Then he covered up each eye in
turn with q curious pair of spectacles TO
determine il there was blindness IN either
orgen. This done, the candidate
YVES asked to step into the room and
stand opposite MIR. Salmon, and, without
removing his eyes from those OF the eX-
aminer, follow the latter's movements of
fingers with arms extended. book was
then given the candidate 10 resd tn de-
termiEe the range Of vision. The hard
working fellows were not elOCutiOnlsts,
and their struggling through a classic
translation was often ludlCrouS. Oaly
one in I'll the crowd examined yesterday,
and this is the last of nearly 400, SC
hnoWIedged that he could not read, al
though he signed his name to the certih
cate IN & plain, neat handwriting.
Now came the crucial test. On the
table was q heap Of many ColoreG yarns.
Reds, greens, blues, dirty states, rinks
and olives were there, ard ell were mum
| bered. Taking up light bunch OF pink
/ yarn, Mr. Salmon would &sk itS color
/ The candidates except in few instances
called its name. Mr. Salmon explained
1 that the name of the color was not the
purpose of the exsminstion, but the
ebility to distinguish the color Itself
| Few, Il any, he said of ordinary people
can tell the different shades Of color
They know the bright red or the viviC
green or white, but when il comes t
notifications or shadings Of these color!
they are not able to name them, ever
while they can easily distinguish then
from other Coiors.
After the man had rauod the color h(
wss handed stick and asked to picl
from the piles Of yarn similar colors
either lighter or darker III shade. Thi
uOIC, ut MAS 6ShSU " PICK OuL EtGCu
and then the different shsdes Of green
Some OF the men were slow, other
quickly named the color and picked Ou
rs shades. Some curious mistakes, hArdl
errors, were made, particularly in tn
naming of the orange skein, which inva
riab!y was called "reddishn Ole only
and he net the most intelligent of tn
crowd called the colors by their prOpe
names He even knew cage green, wEic
the other men called dirty green o
brown.
When this was done the man signed tn
back of the certificate, snd if he was
freight conductor or engineer he wa
handed a telegram from o train dispatcher
giving orders IS TO the running Of q trair
and requested TO answer it fully in detail
This, too, in nearly al the instances wa
done we'll, one mans writing il particr
lar being very fine.
Out CT all the crowd examined yeste,
day but three were found who were colo
blind. The last man, an intelligent fe
low, and freight brakeman, was able
distinguish the colors of red an
: green and blue, yet in picking OF
. shades or tones in the greens he invaris
bly, got the dirty shades CT yellow an
{ pink. In the reds he got the shades {
! olive and sage green aud brownish orang
| His blues were badly mixed. MIR. Saline
, said afterWsrd that while the man w;
} not absolutely color blind, yet it W:
net right to retain him in his present pc
sition.
. Perhaps the best example of almo
total color blindness yet developed by tt
, examination is that of passenger eng
, neer who ran one of the most importsl
and fastest trains on one of the division
of the roed. Yet in the face
the finding of the examination he WI
given certificate of good color percel
ton from one OF the best oculists in II
: city. The dirty white color is used b
/ cause of the white flags used in signalir
= becoming discolored by the rain and dus
2 This coler the man called green ar
I matched the green with six diferel
= shades of states and chocolates. ros
: colored skein be called heavy pink. Tn
; was close enough, but when asked
: pick out similar col0rs, he polluted
= three shades of blue, three of light gree
n one deep green and ore light red. The IT
II skein he named correctly, yet pointed
n two shades of green, one bronze and OF
e slate color as similar tints. A req 81
= dirty white he said were alike, and
! deep green skein he said was light re-
r A light green he called dirty pink, al
e a deep blue a deep pink. An inten
4 green he called pink red and a Zig
e green was pale red A blue he csllt
o deep pink. While he was intelliger
# read well, answered the telegram CO
= rectly, and, while his sight was perfe
e and of good range, it was necessary tn
v an adverse export should be made, al
d he was discharged. - Philadelph
y